When Should I Attend?

There are reasons to attend graduate school immediately after finishing your
undergraduate education. There are also reasons to take time off before
continuing your education at the graduate level.

Reasons for continuing on immediately may include:

Building on the momentum - some people feel they are most likely to stay on
track academically if they continue being a student and don't take time off

Entry level job requirements - a graduate degree may be required in your
career field even for that first position

Shelf-life of your courses - certain mandatory pre-requisite courses
(especially those in science and technology) may "expire" after a period of
time

Reasons for taking time off first may include:

Admissions requirements - some programs will not accept you until after you
have significant work experience in the field in which you choose to study

Competitiveness - although you may be accepted without relevant work
experience, you may find your application is viewed more competitively by the
admissions committee if you have experience. Additionally, you may be more
competitive for jobs once you finish if you have both a graduate degree and
related work experience

Clarification/confirmation of interest - time off gives you time to test out
a variety of fields. This critical since graduate/professional programs, unlike
your undergraduate education, don't provide you with a broad exposure to a
variety of disciplines; rather they narrow your educational focus and
professional options.

Burn out - you've been in school for a long time and simply need a break

Financial - you can pay off some of your student loans before incurring new ones or you can simply get a head start saving for graduate school

Employer support - you may choose to pursue your graduate education in
partnership with an employer who offers educational benefits. Usually, this
benefit doesn't kick in right away, you have to obtain permission when you want
to take courses, and coursework must be related to the work you are doing for
the employer.

Important: Some people apply to graduate school with the
intent of deferring admission. Not every program, will allow
you to defer. You may have to resubmit an entirely new application or you may be
able to simply reactive your application. Either way, you will then be compared
to the current applicant pool. There's no guarantee that if you were accepted
once, you will be accepted again.

Also important: If you choose to take time off before entering graduate school, you will still want to request recommendations from your professors now - while your academic performance is fresh in their minds. When you are ready to apply, you can then either use the recommendation as is or ask that the professor revise it to more strategically support the type of programs to which you've chosen to apply. You can store these "in advance" recommendations by registering with Interfolio for a small fee.​